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Cooking with Culture

When you open the fridge in search of a quick breakfast or
midafternoon snack, there's a good chance you'll reach for a carton
of yogurt. The dairy product has never been more popular. And all
you have to do is visit the dairy aisle at the local supermarket to
see that yogurt has come a long way since the 1970s, when the
fermented-milk confection enjoyed its first wave of mainstream
popularity in the United States.

Yogurt's appeal goes beyond convenience. It's a good source of
protein, calcium, B vitamins, and other nutrients. And because of
the live bacterial cultures used to turn milk into yogurt, "it's
actually more easily digested than milk. The good bacteria used to
make yogurt also break down lactose, the milk sugar some people
just can't handle," says Miriam Nelson, Ph.D., associate professor,
Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts
University, and author of
Strong Women Eat Well.

Eating yogurt has long been associated with good health and a
long life. The ancient Assyrians called it lebene (life), and
today, food scientists consider yogurt a probiotic food. (Probiotic
is the term for a category of cultured foods that contain
beneficial bacteria.)

Yogurt has always been a staple food in Mediterranean and India
cuisine. Cucumber raita is a refreshing cool yogurt relish that
accompanies nearly all Indian meals. "I find yogurt most useful as
a remedy for too much chile heat," says Anne Willan, author of
Good Food, No Fuss. "A quick spoonful of cucumber raita, and
that fiery burn is calmed at once."

But "yogurt is funny stuff in the kitchen," Willan says. "If you
heat it, it separates." Her advice: Stir yogurt into hot dishes at
the last minute, after they've been removed from the oven or
stovetop. Also, heat kills the live and active cultures in yogurt,
so a recipe for grilled chicken marinated in yogurt and cumin might
taste great and boast protein, calcium, and B vitamins, but it
won't have probiotic health benefits. If you want to incorporate
yogurt into meals and maintain its probiotic qualities, use it in
cool dishes, such as cold soups, dips, or salad dressings. Yogurt
is also good as a creamy dessert topping.